Part 2 of the Latin Business Today spotlight on Tito Puente Jr. and insight on his father’s legacy.
Editor’s note: This is part two of a two part series. Part one is entitled The Business of Music at RSL Studios with Tito Puente Jr. [Video].
Tito Puente Jr. believes that Latin music is a universal language bringing people together and for him, the opportunity to share this language worldwide is something he knows he is very fortunate to do.
He never gets tired of hearing a crowd shouting the words to his father’s legendary song, Oye Como Va, and he shakes his head and laughs about it because it strikes him as unusual that people in even a remote location like Japan will go crazy to hear that recognizable rhythm and shout out the lyrics.
In our second segment of Tito Jr.’s interview, he shares his father’s words of wisdom to surround himself with creative people and “thus you will be creative”. This is a thought that still sticks with him today and so surrounding himself with other musicians and positive minded people drives much of his musical inspiration.
Tito also strives to maintain a stable work/life balance between his constant travel and performance schedule and his family.
When he is home, he thoroughly enjoys his time with his wife, children and now grandchildren! He loves being in the spotlight as a positive role model and is grateful to share his music and life with his audience but values the importance of his family time.
For the business side of the Tito Puente brand, there are big goals to create a docu-series or movie that will chronicle the story of his father’s humble beginnings to his worldwide success.
It’s all a part of keeping the spirit alive of his father’s legendary music and making sure that his name, his story and his rhythmic Latin music style are never forgotten. There is already a textbook used at universities and music conservatories called “World Music” that includes a chapter on Latin jazz and credits his father as being a pioneer of this musical style.
Tito hopes to see even more teaching and seminars created to continue to educate the youth about this genre.
Next page- Tito Jr. has a long list of projects in the works!